Won't Wait Around Forever
by Stephane Richer
Summary: Kise gives Aomine something to think about.


Won't Wait Around Forever

* * *

The stark contrast of Kise's bright blonde hair and almost luminescent (is this the makeup again?) skin against the dark trees is disconcerting, kind of creepy, especially when he's got this faraway look in his eyes like he's some kind of woebegone spirit.

Maybe he is. Maybe Aomine's just dreaming again, dreaming of people who just aren't there, people far away who he wants to see but doesn't want to at the same time because he'll make a fool out of himself again. Okay, fine, it's just this one guy, but still. Kise turns to him, still with that vacant gaze and yeah this is definitely a dream because his hand comes up and then a stain starts growing across it like ink and it slowly consumes him and Aomine just watches it.

A few seconds later, he wakes up, drenched in sweat and alone and confused. Fucking cryptic dreams. The sun is out, but it's still so early, not even 6:30. He rolls over, but he's wide awake, Kise's face, the last words they exchanged still fresh in his mind.

At 6:45 he decides to get up and go for a run to clear his head. He gets dressed, grabs his iPod, and heads out. The music doesn't help, the words are still ringing in a rhythm. "For-ever, for-ever, I won't wait…around…forever…" Kise hadn't said them to a dance beat. He'd been rueful and had just walked off, leaving Aomine more than a little flummoxed, and that had been after the last time they had played one another, school against school, although it was a practice match.

Aomine had wanted clarification, but he asked Momoi and she just shook her head at him so he wonders if this is one of those things that is right in front of his nose that he can't understand and doesn't notice because his mind is just basketballbasketballfoodsleepbasketball all the time and he doesn't have time to think of anything else.

And what is Kise waiting for? Damn bastard. Aomine is the one who should be waiting for him at the top, at the peak of basketball. Kise's improved so much since he started playing but he's still not at Aomine's level quite yet. So where is he? What's the context? The only ones they've ever had is Teikou (but that was forever ago, at least it seems like that sometimes) and the hardwood court but when Kise said that they were wearing their high school uniforms and no one was carrying a basketball and it was outside and Kise turned his back and then turned his head so he was partially facing Aomine and then he said it.

And so, unconsciously, Aomine realizes he's jogging back on a familiar route, except he has no idea how he got here. His feet have led him back to a trail he's walked so many times before. It's kind of near Teikou, and it's where he would always hang out with his friends in middle school. More Kise than any other friend, actually, even though he and Kise knew one another for much less than he knew pretty much any other friend. Although, he ended up dropping most of his middle school friends. Most of them he doesn't speak to at all, some rarely, and Kise is one of a handful he sees regularly.

Recent time discounted, of course. In that last month, they haven't seen one another at all. Aomine doesn't know if he's avoiding Kise or if Kise is avoiding him or giving him space to "catch up" or whatever he wants. He doesn't know what Kise wants him to do. Should he chase after him? Should he wait for Kise? But Kise is the one who is waiting. He said that word. He said all of those words. Aomine really doesn't want to think about it, but the thoughts are bouncing around inside his head and they just won't leave or resolve themselves and the only solution is really to talk to him, and Aomine knows he'll be here.

It's his instincts talking again. It doesn't take long to find him, now that his conscious has caught up and is looking. Kise's sitting outside the pastry shop, sipping on a cup of coffee and his hands are not covered in ink. They're pale but not luminescent. Aomine's the one glowing with sweat from the run (has he really been running that fast? It hasn't felt that way.) but Kise's got that faraway look in his eyes and turns around to face him and their eyes meet and Aomine flushes.

There's still no ink on Kise's hand.

"What are you waiting for?" Aomine asks, leaning over the railing.

Kise smiles and places his lips on Aomine's.

Oh. "You could have told me from the get go," Aomine mumbles into the kiss.

Kise tastes sweet (he's always poured excessive amounts of sugar in his coffee, and wait, why is Aomine thinking about coffee now? He actually wants to be thinking about Kise and his sweet lips and those brilliant, catlike yellow eyes.) and his lips don't push too hard. They're gentle and…waiting. Aomine has to take the initiative now, but he knows exactly what to do and how to kiss back now. It's all clicking into place.

Yeah, he's been waiting for this, too, in the back part of his mind that's discarded Kise's words because it knew exactly what he meant by them, the part that led his feet to run this way today. This is the part of his brain that made him throw the ball at Kise's head. This is the part of his brain he never listens to even when he knows it's right, which is most of the time. But today it's strong-armed the rest of him into complying and it's a damn good thing because Kise looks pretty enticing (to say the absolute least) and now all of those funning feelings he's been having around Kise are making so much more sense.

Aomine clasps one of Kise's hands in his. "Come with me?" He helps him climb over the fence between the sidewalk and the café seating, and then starts running again, dragging the blonde behind him.

Kise laughs, and it echoes behind them and in front of them and all around them and Aomine's laughing soon and he can't run anymore and he steadies himself on Kise's body and they've only gotten a block or two away but they're not running away from anything, so it's okay to stop and wait right now.


End file.
